The new pope has caused quite a stir with this morning's homily, creating a 'news' and blogging frenzy. I'm going to join that now and ask for you to weigh in... which you can actually do below without joining up on this site! Please, do leave your thoughts, comments, and rants below!

The Roman Catholic Church has historically been a "my way or the highway," "I'm taking my ball and going home" kind of religious institution, at times stating there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church (big 'C' on both counts). So a statement like this tagline in the HuffPo has potentially far-reaching implications. As I read the article, the text in question that brought the pope's homily was Mark 9:38-40, where some of the disciples of Jesus were trying to stop the ministry that a man, not of their number, was doing in the name of Jesus. Jesus' response was, "Knock it off, you knuckleheads!" (Modern Father Translation). In particular, the portion of the pope's message causing the greatest stir is this:

"The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.” Text from page of the Vatican Radio website

Being familiar with the passage myself, and reading the "boxed in" quotes from the pope's message, I noticed we might be seeing a case of misunderstood premises leading to a false conclusion on the part of the HuffPo author/commentators. To go further into the issue I dug deeper. I clicked on a link that shared more of the pope's comments, a link to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's statement "opposing" such inclusive statements, and watched the HuffPo "On The Radar" commentary chat over the homily (from 6:32 to 9:40 in the video). The video was especially interesting to me, and so I discuss it in greater depth below.

I encourage you to read the HuffPo article linked above and leave your thoughts here. What is Pope Francis saying to us in this message? What is the likelihood this message has to unify people of differing faith backgrounds, even those without any particular spirituality?

Two HuffPo commentators discussed this morning's proclamation and I was very surprised to hear the non-Christian man pointing out issues with the statements that the Catholic woman fully embraced. Is the issue mainly that this removes the "second-class believers" feeling other Christians (i.e. non-Catholics) have? Is the issue that no one's going to hell, that salvation is basically "in the bag" we all get when we're born? Is the issue just doing or being good? There seems to be some disagreement:

(paraphrased and edited for brevity & substance)

Mark: If you tell people they ain't really gotta get down with Catholicism.Alicia: But doesn't that make you more interested in Catholicism?Mark: No! I heard that and I was like, "Ah, s*@t, I'm good then--back to the strip club!"Alicia: No, but, no, you have to do good acts and I think that's a lot harder to actually commit to in your daily life...Mark: I don't know about that. I mean the argument against 21st Century religiosity has been that they want all the benefits of religious faith with none of the commitments, not having to go, not having to practice the faith in a certain way... they want everything and don't want to sacrifice anything...Alicia: I think there a lot of Catholics like myself who grew up in the faith and were very much turned off by the fact that at every turn we were told that things that we do in our everyday life were going to send us to hell... this... lifts some of the burden of the structure of the church and says to me, "I can do this on my terms if I'm fundamental believer and I am being a good Christian, and that's enough.' ...Mark: I think it's wrong. One more thing... So, there's orthodoxy, which says you have to believe certain things and there's orthopraxis, which says that your faith is bound by what you do... he's shifting toward something like orthopraxic which will make people say, "I don't have to believe in the trinity," if you're a Christian that's a big deal to those people, "I don't have to believe, make certain decisions because I'm already saved." That kind of attitude, I think, is gonna move people out of the church, like, "I do go works, I don't have to go to church."Alicia: I disagree.

I have to admit, I agree with the non-Christian on these points, except the strip club and "doing good saves you" parts. He laid the smack down on this Catholic woman who didn't know her stuff. The message of Jesus isn't that doing good is enough for salvation (I don't think that's what the pope said) but that our confirming works will always follow, and sometimes lead to (Lk 19:1-10), salvation (see the book of James). The pope's message seemed aimed at accentuating a bridge of communication between Catholics and everyone else.

Taken from the Vatican Radio website, “Doing good” the Pope explained, is not a matter of faith: “It is a duty, it is an identity card that our Father has given to all of us, because He has made us in His image and likeness. And He does good, always.” We were all made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27), and are called to conform to that image (Rom 8:29, Phil 2:5), but there's a reason the Word says our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Is 64:6) and Jesus said no one but God is good (Mk 10:8) and Peter said there's no other name than Jesus by which to be saved (Acts 4:12) and Paul said we're saved from righteous judgment and brought back to relationship with God by Jesus' death (Rom 5:9-11). Jesus laid down His life for His sheep (Jn 10:18) and was saddened when they walked away from Him (Matt 19:20) because He knew what it meant. It didn't mean He was sad now but knew He'd eventually see them in heaven. People still misunderstand Jesus today, just as the HuffPo article misunderstood the pope (or maybe they didn't, and I did, in which case the pope is wrong in his understanding of scripture).

The question at the heart of this firestorm of controversy is what Pope Francis is actually saying. Is he saying that salvation rests on everyone, no matter their beliefs, or is he just saying that everyone is covered under Christ's redemptive work on the cross (should they choose to respond) and, therefore, bear within themselves the duty to do good, that place of commonality in which we can all be unified? I imagine people can draw from his words whatever conclusion they like, just as we do with scripture, and just as the Huffington Post article did.

What is your conclusion? What do you believe Jesus was saying in Mark 9? What do you believe Pope Francis was saying about Mark 9? Do you agree with Mark or Alicia? Why?

Leave a Reply.

Author

I write to remember the lessons I learn as a Man, Husband, Father, Son, Brother, Pastor, and Friend. As I come to grips with the blackness within me, I am more appreciative of God's grace-filled grip. We all change in the seasons of life. This is my deep well...